#and Max keeps finding crystals on the wimdowsill and dried flowers over doorways and sometimes will think about how kelly would never

[123pixieaod]

girl!daniel question! Even if she throws everything out does she maybe keep the earrings max complimented? Maybe wears them when her and max go out on a date or something??

Girl Daniel is always happy to answers questions😎🫡

So Daniel 10000% keeps the earrings because when she was doing her big Clean Out they were still scattered in her handbag from when she ripped them off and shoved them in while in tears, and when she finally finds them she's more calm and just places them carefully on her bedside table trying not to think about everything they make her feel.

After her and Max get together, she goes back to wearing them, but teases Max about them and calls them her "definitely not pretty earrings" and each time he huffs and his cheeks darken and he tries to explain that what he meant -

And Daniel will just shake her head and remind him that he very clearly called them pretty but then later took it back and expressively told her that he did not mean it and and and -

And every time she wears them, she gently ribs him about them with a teasing smile until Max begins to call them her Definitely Not Pretty Earrings too.

Being with Max is freeing because he genuinely doesn't really care about how dressed up/baggy her clothes or appearances are, and so in this safety of security Daniel begins to experiment with her feminimity and gender expression, and as long as she stays happy then Max is happy and as long as Max is happy she is happy, but no matter how many crystal bracelets or overlapping necklaces or hippie dresses she invests in, the silver, dangling Definitely Not Pretty earrings remain a staple.

Fast forward. Daniel's having visa issues and airport security is always a pain and hassle and Max is just like 🤷let's just get married🤷 and Daniel is like🤷‍♀️okay why not🤷‍♀️ (while ofc both internally are freaking out because they get to marry each one!!!)

Both agree to do it in secret because neither are really ready to be Married™️ (not Daniel with her complex issues with traditional gender roles and the fact she promised she'd never get married and become "just" a housewife (((✨️the internalised misogyny is back!✨️))) and not Max with his unresolved childhood trauma with marriage and family). So they do it just because it's Rational and Makes Sense, and so Daniel is just beyond surprised when Max presents her with ring. And she is embarrassed because she didn't even think of getting him a ring or anything, but he shrugs and says it does not matter to him.

And the ring is silver and sort of... weird. Like it looks like silver strands of scales woven together, and some parts are thin and some are thick, and Daniel just adores it because it's weird and unusual, and Max chose it for her. She figures he just bought it at some flee market and likes imaging all the lives it lived before reaching hers. And she wears it on her ring finger but on her right hand after they technically get married secretly.

Nothing else changes, but her mother bluntly tells her that her new ring is ugly and her sister says it's looks unfinished or something, and Daniel just laughs, uncaring and happy. And finally, it's her dad, a few years later when she's spending a few weeks at home in Australia. Her dad gives her a look and asks if the ring came with her earrings, and it's only then, finally, that she realises that, of course. They're matching. They're the same. And Max must've had the ring designed specially to match her Definitely Not Pretty earrings.

When she finally gets back to Monaco, she blurts out the question if he did, and he laughs and gives her a funny look and says had she really not noticed, it's been years. That ofc the ring matches her earrings, he had it made specially for her.

Daniel just goes quiet and then tells Max she didn't know, and he laughs and asks what difference does it make? And Daniel kisses him, and then the next time she is at a race, the ring is still on her ring finger, but this time in her left hand, and Max has a matching one too :)))